Wireless Question

[#1]

I wonder if anyone can advise....

My daughter has an older Toshiba laptop, running windows 10.  I upgraded the memory, and installed an SSD to make it a little faster, but wireless performance is still a bit poor.  I have a 55Mb connection, but even next to the router she only gets around 10Mb.  My laptop, although only running at 2.5Ghz, gets around 35-40Mb. Wired both get around 50ish. I have researched the wireless adapter, its an Atheros one, and its not really supported under 10.  I was wondering if its faulty, or due to the drivers.  No upgrades are available. Question I am asking is would replacing the PCI wireless card be better, or would a USB wireless adapter be a better option.  I suppose its possible to use wired, as I have TP link powerline adapters in the house, but I can find anywhere that sells singles, all are starter packs, and I don't really need 4.  They are TP-Link TL-PA4010 units.

Happy to get inside the laptop if that's the best bet.

[#2]

@penfold I'd go with a USB dongle, that way you'll get more use from it as it can be used elsewhere after the Toshiba reaches its end of life, and you're not constrained by the length of the LAN cable, which can only be an additional trip hazard.

[#3]

@penfold 

When you say that there are no driver updates available have you looked at trying running an app such as the free version of Driver Booster? I have in the past solved similar problems with this. Just remove it after use or you will be hassled with invites to upgrade to the paid for version.

[#4]

OK. Maybe usb the way to go. Regards the drivers, just looked on the site and googled the drivers. It's a Realtec RTL8191SE. Sorry, its my laptop that's the Atheros adapter. 🙄🙄

[#5]

@penfold 

I have read that this problem can be solved by going into the device manager and manually installing the Atheros AR9285 Wireless Adapter Driver instead of using the Realtec one.

Worth trying?

[#6]

So you are saying that I stalling an atheros driver with a Realtec card is ok....

[#7]

@penfold 

I would certainly give it a go, it's not going to break anything else and you can simply delete it if it doean't work.